The Dillon tribune., 1887-11-04
s.No, the wind is at my back; II" 1oros;

driving mo ON till l was ready to drop.
Once / fell and lay there with the wind
dragging and tearing at Inc till began to
grow sleepy. and then had to get up and
go ahead again.
perhaus YOU never tried crossing
Draire nj n;rh, without a trail to follow.
It's a curious thing, one cannot account
for: one that makes you feel as il your
body and all your senses were OF no moro
account than Il spent cartridge. 1t hap
pencl To me that night, space and time
seemed to ge, all mixed up together all at
once racing along; it seemed to me that
had been keeping up that sort OF thing for
hours. fell SO adrift sonlehow--so hor'
ribly lost-as if had slipped out of my
self and was out in space without land
mark to measure anything by. expecS
you'll have TO try it yourself to know
what mean. had no watch; there was
no way of knowing how much time had
gone. OF all the devils that can enter
into I. man uncertainty is the worst.
Every sort of fancy came into my head.
Perhaps did not know the route as well
as had thought. Perhaps I had even
passed the cabins and was going away
from them with every step. ought to
have reached them in three hours at the
utmost. It seemed to me that had been
hurting along for twice three hours.
Once tried madly to fight back into the
wind. 1t was hopeless, worse than use
less. should drop with exhaustion in a
few minutes and must keep going.
And then found burned grass under
my feet. There had been a fire over the
prairie. The ground was not cold yet. A
new dread got hold Of me. Who knew
where it had gone or what had stood in Its
track? ran along screaming something
praying or rswearing-quitc mad, think,
for little, till fell again, and the jar
brought Inc to my senses.
I had gone over the edge of an old buf-
falo run scooped deep by the rush of sum-
mer rains. lay still for u little while.
must have gone to sleep, or perhaps !
tainted away. Anyway, when came tC
myself again the world was rs still rs the
grave.
The wind had gone down, as it will
sometimes. suddenly and entirely. The
silence was horrible. | got ON my feet
stiff and bcnumbcd In all that gray, still,
CHASTITY space there was nothing to tell
east from west or north from south. Twas
lost on the big range.
It was still enough, but the cold was
dangerous. l could not stop. I must
move somewhere. must make myself a
purpose-a purpose to keep myself alive
ut least-till aylight came.
began walking; it did not matter in
what direction. If only my strength
held out till morning-strength to keep
off that horrible drowsiness. / know I
stumbled heavily along. was thinking
about Molly and her baby; it all seemed
like dull dream.
And then bells began to ring: deep and
soft and far off. 1 stopped in my tracks
to listen. It was the sound of bells, GER
tain, full and sweet; and turned and
went blindly on, following the sound as q
hound might follow q scent.
All at once saw light. It wasn't
star; there We're no stars. And nobody
lived ON the big range, unless some
camper was travelling about, and travellers
don't 'traYel in the teeth of a norther.
And this light swung and waved, went
out entirely for second or two and then
burned up again. And near or far I
could not tell, only it was light and it
moved, and followed it. And I could
hear the bells all the time.
Then, all at once, another one of Molly's
Bible verses flashed into my head; some
thing about u ''stnr in the east that went
before them till it came and stood over
the place where the young child lay"
Well, I wasn't q wise man, or
shouldn't have got in such fix. don't
think am an irrcvcrent kind of a fellow,
either; man could live with Molly many
years and be that. Only I was looking
for u young child too, and babies-little
ones-always did seem to me near enough
to heaven to make that story about the
star reasonable enough. Anyway, there it
was, meant for me or not, and fol-
lowed it.
up and went on. l was talking to myself
part of the time, hearing my own voice
and thinking it was some one clse's. I
lost my sense OF time again, but kept on
doggedly: and then, suddenly, the light
flashed brighter, whirled about in a wild
sort OF n way, and went out entirely.
l gave shout and ran forward, I
thought I should die il lost it. And
there was standing on a wide trail, with
u sort OF square dark shape standing up
in the dimness before me, with light and
voices coming out of the chinks, and
somehow, there was the door, and my
hand on the latch, and in another second
oh! it was Molly-Molly with u lamp
IN her hand, bending over feeding box
made into IL cradle, with great armful
OF hay and y white shecpsEin for II cover,
and Madison's wife kneeling on one side
and Clayton's wife on the other, and be-
y"nd, with the lights flashing in their
great. wandering, shining eyes, Il pair of
astonished horses. And then there came
u piping cry from the feeding trough, and
knew had found the baby.
Burned out? Yes, sir. That was the
last thing; but they had had warning be-
fore the fire came down ON them. jim
Clayton had taken the women and struck
across for the big road and they took the
first shelter they came to, a stable that
had been built in the days when all the